Assessments and Screening

ASSESSMENT AND SCREENING

St. Pius Elementary School uses a variety of methods and programs to assess and screen students to assure their success. Just as each child has different gifts to share, each child learns differently. Through various forms of assessment and screening, we can determine not only what children know but how they learn best as they progress toward mastery of grade level content.

Standards Based Assessment for PreK through 3rd grades allows teachers, students, and parents to focus on skill development and levels of mastery ensuring that essential grade-specific skills in English Language Arts, Mathematics, Religion and areas of Social/ Emotional, Physical and Cognitive development have been obtained by year’s end. Assessment is on-going and consists of daily observation of skills, guided reading, class projects, center work, one-on-one assessment and paper/pencil tasks.

In first through third grades, student performance in Science and Social Studies is also documented on the student report card. Student progress is also noted each quarter in the following areas: Guided Reading, Fluency Rate, STAR Reading, STAR Math, Ren Math and Math Facts in a Flash.

In fourth through eighth grade, students are graded on a standard scale in the core subject areas of English Language Arts, Mathematics, Reading, Science, Social Studies, and Religion. Raw scores are used to determine averages. Grades are based on tests, quizzes, projects, and classwork.

The Office of Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Lafayette mandates that students are assessed utilizing standardized tests. First and second grade students are assessed utilizing the Stanford Achievement Test (10th edition) and the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (8th edition). All third through eighth grade students are assessed utilizing the ACT Aspire (1st edition) suite of achievement tests.